REVEREND DR. KEITH NORMAN: The heart
is our emotional center
of well-being but it is also
our physical center
of well-being.
And so when we have
a healthy emotional, spiritual,
and physical well-being
all anchored in the heart,
we're healthy overall.
What good does it help us
or does it prosper us to have
wealth
or to have access to so many
other things
when our physical bodies can't
enjoy that?
So what we want to do
is make sure that we're centered
mentally,
emotionally, spiritually and
physically.
Well, my advocacy around health
and health outcomes
began when I looked
at the community
to see some of the things
that we really needed.
We were in a food desert,
we did not have a lot of parks
and recreational spaces
that were safe for people
to play and walk around.
And there were not a lot
of access points for people
to get primary health care.
So I began at that point
to advocate for primary health
care providers
to come to our community
as well as for healthy food
options,
and for improved exercise
and walking paths for people
in safe areas.
Realizing that we had resources
in our community, the American
Heart Association and others,
they also became partners
with us and alongside us
to help us find ways to get
low cost free accessible things
available to the people who live
and work in these communities.
So in urban communities,
people often are told what to do
but they don't often have access
to those particular things
as well as how to get it done.
For instance, you don't
typically find gymnasiums that
have counselors or have people
who can help you
with dietary decisions.
You don't typically have grocery
stores where you can find
the fresh fruits and vegetables
that you need.
You don't typically have
the safe parks and the walking
paths and the exercise programs
that you need.
But by using
a large urban church
in this community
and accessing and making
those types of programs
possible for the residents
at a free price point,
it helps to alleviate
the barriers.
Oftentimes people know what
to do because they'll
go to the doctor
or if they have a heart episode
or health care episode they are
told what to do
and they're given handouts,
but they don't have anyone
to guide them and to help them.
We can do that here
in our church as a part
of an overall spiritual healthy
living program as well as just
a good moral thing
to do to help people
live a high quality life.
Well, all that we would do
is to make sure that we help
people to,
again access those low cost
and even free resources that can
improve their health outcomes.
It is so important that we
connect healthy living
and options together not in just
a rhetorical sense of advising
people,
but in really making
it a reality,
a healthy park, a safe well
lit walking trail,
maybe a bicycle trail, maybe
healthier food options right
there in your own community.
And then right there
in the church
in which you participate,
we've removed unhealthy options
from vending machines.
We've removed unhealthy options
from the food offerings
that we have at church
by offering a healthier way
of life
and encouraging people to make
it a part of their daily living.
We see less stress.
We hope to visit fewer hospital
rooms, and then we hope to have
longer, higher, healthier,
quality lives.
When we look at heart health,
we recognize that something
as simple as walking and dietary
change
can make a huge difference.
And so walking is something
that all of us can do.
So we challenge one another.
We open our gymnasium.
There's something you can do it
every age, there's something you
can do with your entire family.
And then we recognize that it
has such a lasting impact
on your overall health.
Your heart health it's going
to affect almost everything.
And so we recognize by using
the pulpit
and using the influence that we
have to bring these issues
in front of people,
to have heart health
conferences,
to link up with free resources
in our community.
This can have a very, very
strong impact,
and it's such a low hanging
piece of fruit if you will,
where we can start and then we
can improve together.